Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar Rambhadracharya Sanskrit scholar chosen for 58th Jnanpith Award
Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar Rambhadracharya Sanskrit scholar chosen for 58th Jnanpith Award
Renowned Urdu poet Gulzar and Rambhadracharya
Sanskrit scholar chosen for 58th Jnanpith Award as announced by the Jnanpith selection committee on Saturday.
Whereas Gulzar is weighed as
one of the finest Urdu poets of this era, Rambhadracharya is a renowned Hindu spiritual leader, educator and writer of more than 100 books.
Sampooran Singh Kalra, popularly recognised as Gulzar, is celebrated for his works in Hindi cinema and considered one of the finest Urdu poets of this era.
Rambhadracharya, the founder and head of Tulsi Peeth in Chitrakoot, is a renowned Hindu spiritual leader, educator and writer of more than 240 books and texts, including four epics.
In a statement, the Jnanpith selection committee articulated that it has been decided to give the award (for 2023) to eminent writers from two languages: Sanskrit litterateur Jagadguru Rambhadracharya and well known Urdu litterateur Shri Gulzar.”
Gulzar received Sahitya Akademi Award for Urdu in 2002, Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2013, Padma Bhushan in 2004, and at least five National Film awards for his works.
Some of his finest works include the song “Jai Ho” for film “Slumdog Millionaire”, which received an Oscar award in 2009 and Grammy Award in 2010, and songs for critically acclaimed films as “Maachhis” 1996 released, “Omkara” 2006 released, “Dil Se…” 1998 released and “Guru” 2007 released among others.
Notably, Gulzar has also directed some timeless award-winning classics, including “Koshish” “Parichay” “Mausam” “Ijaazat”, and television serial “Mirza Ghalib”.
Gulzar has been setting new milestones in the field of literature. In poetry, he invented a new genre ‘Triveni’ which is a non-mukaffa poem of three lines. He has always created something new through his poetry. For some time now he has also been paying serious attention to children’s poetry,” Bharatiya Jnanpith.
Rambhadracharya is one of the present four Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas of the Ramananda sect and has been holding this position since 1982.
A polyglot, who speaks 22 languages, Rambhadracharya is a poet and writer in several Indian languages including Sanskrit, Hindi, Awadhi, and Maithili.
In 2015, he was honoured with the Padma Vibhushan award.
Established in 1944, the Jnanpith Award is given annually for outstanding contributions to Indian literature. This is the second time the award is being given for Sanskrit language and for the fifth time for Urdu language.
The award carries a prize money of Rs 21 lakh, a statue of Vagdevi and a citation.
The recipients for the award were decided by a selection committee chaired by Jnanpith awardee Pratibha Rai.
Other members of the selection committee included Madhav Kaushik, Damodar Mauzo, Prof. Suranjan Das, Prof. Purushottam Bilmale, Praful Shiledar, Prof. Harish Trivedi, Prabha Verma, Dr. Janaki Prasad Sharma, A Krishna Rao and Jnanpith director Madhusudan Anand.
Goan writer Damodar Mauzo had received the prestigious award for 2022.
News Edit K.V.Raman
